Sir Alan Ayckbourn has criticised the West End habit of casting celebrities in
lead roles, disclosing that one producer wanted Harry Hill to play Philip
Larkin.

The award-winning playwright said the tendency to rely on household names, many of whom have had no acting training, in order to attract a wider audience was “just ridiculous”.

And while he expressed admiration for Hill’s work as a comedian and television presenter, he suggested that the idea to cast him as the notoriously melancholy poet was indicative of a wider problem.

“There are people like David Tennant who is a first-class actor, full stop, who just happens to have been in Doctor Who,” he said.

“But if you come out of I’m a Celebrity … and then turn up doing Hedda Gabler at the Royal Court, you could well be on a hiding to nothing. It’s just ridiculous.”

The 72-year-old, who lives in Scarborough, told Radio Times: “We put on a play up here about the poet Philip Larkin. It featured an incredibly fine performance by a not inconsiderable actor, Oliver Ford Davies.

“Producers came up from London to see it. One of them, who shall remain nameless, said to me afterwards, ‘Oh dear, we would need a bigger name to put it on in London.’ So I asked him who that would be. And without a moment’s hesitation, he replied, ‘Harry Hill.’

His thinking was, ‘He is a bald man with glasses, therefore he could play Philip Larkin.’ Now, I have a lot of time for Harry Hill, but not as Philip Larkin.”

Sir Alan, who has just written his 75th play, is not alone. Amanda Redman, the actress, voiced a similar concern last month when she warned that talented actors were struggling for work because directors would rather cast reality television contestants.

Redman, 54, who studied at the Bristol Old Vic and appeared in repertory theatre before finding fame in television, complained that “anyone off the street” could win an acting role these days and that drama training counted for little. She said she was “fed up” with young people wanting only to be famous.

"Sometimes kids who spend years learning a craft find they're up against people who have done no training at all, but will get parts because they've been in a reality show,” she said.

"Anyone off the street can go into acting now. That's the truth of it.”

West End musicals feature a host of performers who first found fame on reality television.

Gareth Gates, runner up in the first series of ITV1 talent show Pop Idol, took the title role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and was later cast in Les Miserables.

Kym Marsh, who was discovered on ITV1's Popstars is now a regular in Coronation Street while X Factor runner up Ray Quinn has appeared in stage productions of Grease and Dirty Dancing.

Chicago has featured several celebrities who had previously appeared on reality television including Claire Sweeney, Jill Halfpenny and Jennifer Ellison.

Others were cast in lead roles in the West End through talent shows such as How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? (The Sound of Music), Any Dream Will Do (Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), I’d Do Anything (Oliver) and Over the Rainbow (The Wizard of Oz).